The #23 Briar Cliff women's basketball team advanced to the GPAC Postseason Tournament Semifinals Tuesday as they knocked off Morningside 85-82 in an overtime thriller in the Newman Flanagan Center. All five starters for the Cliff scored in double-digits.

The Chargers got off to a hot start by opening the contest with a 14-4 run fueled by 3-point baskets from three different Chargers. Morningside cut the lead to seven following an Alexis Spier 3-pointer with just under four minutes left in the quarter. BC pushed the lead back to 10 on back-to-back buckets by Cadence Davis and Madelyn Deitchler.

BC expanded their lead up to 15 points before Morningside started chipping away with consecutive treys from Chaise Pfanstiel and Sophia Peppers late in the second quarter. Morningside held the advantage in points off turnovers (10-1), turnovers (4-8) and points in the paint (8-4) in the second quarter. Briar Cliff defended the Mustangs scoring run knocking down 7-of-9 free throw attempts in the period. Heading into the break, the Chargers held an eight-point advantage.

The teams matched each other in the third quarter, converting on 8-of-14 shot attempts. The Chargers managed to outscore the Mustangs 23-22 to take a nine-point lead into the fourth. The bench played a large role in maintaining the BC lead as Kaegan Held and Davis combined for seven points in the quarter.

The Charger offense cooled off in the final 10 minutes as they shot 35.7% from the floor on 5-of-14 shooting while the Mustangs shot 71.4%, going 10-of-14 from the field. The Mustangs formulated a comeback led by Chloe Lofstrom's eight fourth-quarter points that tied the game up at 74-74 with 1:33 left to go in regulation. Despite two second-chance opportunities off offensive rebounds by Wingert and Konnor Sudmann, the game remained knotted up as the clock struck zeros, sending the game into overtime.

Morningside scored first to begin overtime, but was answered by two free throws from Sudmann. With the Mustangs leading 80-78 with 1:22 left in overtime, Kennedy Benne fed all the momentum to Briar Cliff with a deep 3-point basket, giving BC an 81-80 lead. Sudmann would connect on a mid-range bucket and Payton Slaughter knocked down two clutch free throws to end the game 85-82. BC won their 22nd game of the season and advance to the GPAC Tournament Semifinals.

As a team, the Chargers held the advantage in 3-pointers made (7-4), free throws made (20-14), rebounds (38-30) and bench points (18-10).

Sudmann paced the Chargers with 19 points, five rebounds, three assists and two steals while Slaughter and Deitchler added 13 points apiece. Deitchler had a team-high nine rebounds and Slaughter gathered seven of her own. Benne and Wingert tallied 11 points and five rebounds each.

The No. 2 seeded Chargers will return to action on Saturday as they host No. 6 seeded Concordia in the Newman Flanagan Center at 3 p.m.